Nikon has taken its imaging and AI prowess in a unexpected direction with a new system that can warn farmers when a cow is about to give birth, Kyodo News has reported. It's designed to reduce the need to constantly check large numbers of pregnant cows during busy birthing seasons, helping farmers improve efficiency.

The system, which costs 900,000 yen per year ($6,200) for a farm with around 100 cows, consists of a security-style camera married to an AI system. It uses a dedicated smartphone application that sounds an alert when a calf is due, allowing farmers to spring into action if required. 

Nikon started training the AI in the fall of 2021, then running proof-of-concept tests on four farms in southwestern Japan in February 2023. The system picks up on signs exhibited by pregnant cows about five hours ahead of labor, like increased movement and the beginning of the release of the calf's amniotic sac. "We want to be able to also detect when a female cow is in heat and other behavioral patterns," said Nikon's Kazuhiro Hirano. 

The system apparently does the job well, according a livestock owner who participated in the tests last year. "We deliver about 60 calves per year and had to check the mothers every few hours from around a month before they are due. This system has been a great help," said Keita Higuchi. 

Nikon is best known for its consumer cameras, but it also manufactures microscopes, X-Ray systems, semiconductor systems, robot vision, virtual production studios and more. The company uses AI tech to aid microscope imaging, but has also recently fought against misuse of fake AI images via new electronic watermarking technology. 

LG is already one of the most prolific EV battery manufacturers in the US, but it wants to build the devices that charge them, too. The company just opened just opened its first EV charger manufacturing facility in the US, a 59,000 square foot plant in in Fort Worth, Texas capable of manufacturing 10,000 units per year. 

The company has already started to assemble 11kW home-style chargers there and will begin producing 175kW fast chargers in the first half of 2024. It plans to built 350kW ultra-fast chargers at some point this year designed for "commercial travel and long-distance transportation," LG wrote. 

The Korean company said it chose Texas as it had existing facilities there and because the state offers "excellent logistics and transportation networks and is home to major operations for companies in industries ranging from automobile manufacturing to finance" (GM, Toyota and Tesla all have vehicle assembly plants in the state). 

LG

LG said it's committed to bolstering its EV charger business in Asia and Europe as well. The company, along with two partners, jumped into the game just two years ago, acquiring a South Korean EV battery charger business called AppleMango (since renamed to HiEV).

LG said at the time that the acquisition would allow it to "create synergy" with its EV battery business, along with products like energy storage and energy management systems. The company is also able to leverage its display expertise by marrying the chargers with "sturdy, dust- and water-proof" outdoor digital display units. 

The move also allows LG to capitalize on a US push to build more public EV chargers. The nation currently has 169,741 charging ports (either DC fast or Level 2) across 65,113 stations, according to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. However, the Biden administration wants at least 500,000 public chargers by 2030. "By establishing our EV charger production factory in Texas, we will be able to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for EV infrastructure in the U.S.,” said LG Business Solution president Jand Ik-hwan. 

Following a cryptic tease during CES 2024, Ayaneo has revealed its Next Lite gaming handheld and it's a confusing product, to say the least. It's designed to compete with Steam Deck, but it doesn't run Valve's official SteamOS — rather, it uses a forked version called HoloISO. It will be priced at a decent $299 and while the controls and screen look good, it packs a less-than-potent processor. 

The Next Lite is equipped with a seven-inch 800p screen, 16GB of RAM and and a 47Wh battery, close to the battery size in the $549 Steam Deck OLED. However, it runs either a Ryzen 7 4500U or 4800U processor with Vega 8 graphics, rather than the Ryzen 7 5825U found on the Next. The former chips are several years old now, so the Next Lite is likely to lag well behind the original Steam Deck, currently priced at $349. 

It also uses Hall effect joysticks to eliminate drift and has a copper heat pipe cooling system. It's equipped with three USB-C 2.3 Gen 2 ports on the top and bottom, along with a slot for full-length M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs. If you'd rather run Windows like most other handhelds, it supports that option and will offer required drivers on the company's official website. 

Ayaneo

The earlier press release was puzzling because Ayaneo talked about a "subscription," but it turns out that it was just about subscribing to get more information. The company also initially said it would ship with SteamOS, which got everyone excited, but it turns out that it won't officially support Valve's operating system. Since then, the initial post has been modified to say that it'll use HoloSO, a third-party SteamOS fork. 

So what does that mean in terms of Steam Deck gaming? Ayaneo said that HoloISO "attempts to bring the Steam Deck's SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format, and provide a close-to-official SteamOS experience." In other words, there may not be a guarantee that games will work, given the lack of official support from Valve. 

As mentioned, the Ayaneo Next Lite will cost $299 and come in "vibrant colors" including seafoam green. It's set to start shipping ahead of Chinese New Year on February 10th, 2024. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Google has announced that it will eliminate at least 17 features from its Assistant product, following news that it had laid off "hundreds" of employees from the division. The company is cutting "underutilized features" to "focus on quality and reliability, it wrote in a blog post, even though a good number of people may still rely on those functions.

"Beginning on January 26, when you ask for one of these features, you may get a notification that it won't be available after a certain date," wrote Google Assistant VP Duke Dukellis. 

The company didn't specify how removing certain commands will improve Assistant, nor did it describe any specific quality and reliability problems. It did say, though, that improvements in the past were aided by user feedback, so it may have been receiving complaints about Assistant's core usability of late.

The 17 functions being removed include: accessing or managing your cookbook; using your voice to send an email, video or audio message; rescheduling events in Google Calendar with your voice; and using App Launcher in Google Assistant driving mode on Google Maps to read and send messages, make calls, and control media. It also describes what Assistant can still do related to those functions, or alternate ways of doing them. A list is here, though Google said they're just "some" of the affected features.

The company is also changing the way Assistant works on your phone. The microphone icon in the Google search bar will no longer pull up Assistant, but merely start a Google voice search, "which is its most popular use case," Dukellis wrote. The "Hey Google" hot word and power button long-press will continue to activate Assistant as before. 

After laying off 12,000 people last year, Google said it planned to focus on AI in the future, so it's interesting that one of its early AI products is being pruned. Earlier today, Google confirmed that it had laid off hundreds of people from at least three divisions, including Assistant, hardware devices and core engineering. 

At its October Pixel 8 event, the company announced plans to launch Assistant with Bard, a version that generates personalized answers based on events, dates and conversations stored on your phone. However, Google didn't say if that version has anything to do with cutbacks in current Assistant functionality. 

SpaceX sent and received its first text messages sent via T-Mobile using its D2D (direct-to-device) Starlink satellites launched just over a week ago, the company announced. First revealed in August 2022, the project aims to provide satellite internet connectivity to regular cell phones so that T-Mobile customers can stay online even when they're in a terrestrial dead zone. 

T-Mobile said that it aims to publicly launch text services with T-Mobile in 2024, with voice, data and IoT (internet of things) plans coming in 2025. Globally, SpaceX has partnered with Rogers in Canada, Australia's Optus, KDDI in Japan and others. 

The scheme requires larger, special versions of the Starlink satellites with D2D capability. SpaceX launched the first six of those on January 2, completing early tests with no issues. "On Monday, January 8, less than 6 days after launch, we sent and received our first text messages to and from unmodified cell phones on the ground to our new satellites in space using TMobile network spectrum... [indicating that] the system works," SpaceX wrote in a blog post. 

SpaceX

When the plan was announced, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said the technology is like putting a cellular tower in the sky. He added that it could one day eliminate dead zones, allowing people to easily get in touch with loved ones even if they're in the middle of the ocean. 

SpaceX said that the system, which uses LTE/4G (not 5G protocols) is a bit more complicated than cell towers in the sky, though. Since the satellites move at tens of thousands of miles per hour relative to the Earth, data must be handed off seamlessly between them. Doppler shift, timing delays and the relatively low transmission power of smartphones must also be accounted for. 

The two companies aren't the first to test such a system. Working with communications specialist AST SpaceMobile, AT&T successfully conducted the first two-way satellite audio call on its network in April, calling a number in Japan with a stock Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone. AT&T also complained to the FCC that SpaceX and T-Mobile's plan was "woefully insufficient" regarding the risk of harmful interference to ground-based networks. 

Google has laid off "several hundred" workers in multiple divisions each in a new round of belt tightening, according to reports from The New York Times, 9to5Mac, Semafor and others. Divisions affected include hardware (Pixel, Nest and Fitbit), core engineering and Google Assistant. The cuts — which appear to be at least 600 but may be higher — are already effective and workers impacted have reportedly been informed.

"We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," a Google spokesman told the NYT in a statement. "Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally."

As part of the cuts, Google is said to be reorganizing its Pixel, Nest and Fitbit divisions, and Fitbit co-founders James Park, Eric Friedman and other leaders are leaving the company. The company will reportedly have one team responsible for hardware engineering across all three divisions. 

"We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about ongoing employment of some Google employees and we regret to inform you that your position is being eliminated," the company told some employees in the core engineering division, according to a note seen by the NYT. 

The company declined to respond to The Verge when asked if it reduced headcount in any other divisions — so the total number of layoffs isn't clear. Last year, Google made some of its largest job cuts ever, laying off around 12,000 people in January. As of late last year, the company employed 182,381 people, and counted 118,899 at the beginning of 2020, just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

That was part of a wider reduction in jobs across the industry in 2023, with over 220,000 layoffs during the year. Those came from larger companies like Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Spotify and Amazon, along with numerous small, medium-sized and startup firms. Engadget has reached out to Google for comment about the layoffs and will update the story if required. 

Urtopia has tried to separate its e-bike's from the pack with copious use of technology and this year the company has outdone itself. It just showed off its flagship Fusion model for the first time in full at CES 2024 (after teasing it earlier this year) and it's fully integrated with none other than ChatGPT, the buzzy AI assistant. The Fusion follows the company's previous tech-infused Chord and original Urtopia models.

Urtopia calls the Fusion "the world's first dual battery, dual motor ebike by design visionary Hartmut Esslinger," a very specific claim. It's built with carbon fiber to reduce weight and uses a Shimano CUES derailleur on the regular model and Enviolo stepless shifter on the premium CVT version. The dual 540Wh battery allows for 120km of range (75 miles), but the 360Wh battery extender brings that up to 200km (124 miles) — enough to traverse Paris from north to south about 20 times. 

Urtopia

It can hit up to 25 km/h thanks to the 95Nm mid-drive motor and has 100mm of travel with the air suspension fork. All that, combined with the relatively light weight (23 kg) wide tires and stable frame, make it suitable for off-road, trails and city riding.  

That could be any e-bike, but the Fusion's headline feature is the tech. It's connected by 4G and uses GPS tracking to keep you informed of the bike's location even if stolen. It also comes with a movement alarm, fingerprint unlock, route tracking, navigation without a cellphone and Bluetooth music via a built-in speaker — all as with past models. 

What's new is what the company calls "Jarvis" technology enabled by a smart ring (the company didn't say which one) to power the bike on, play music or activate the other tech feature, ChatGPT. You can also converse directly with ChatGPT through the built-in speaker. You may reasonably ask what ChatGPT is doing on an e-bike — the answer is that it can help you "explore new routes, get real-time information, and even engage in entertaining conversations," according to Urtopia. 

We're not sure how useful a chat assistant is when dodging traffic at 25 km/h, but it might at least keep you company on a lonely trail. It's also a pretty solid marketing gimmick that the company is using to separate itself from the many, many other e-bikes on the market. Buyers will have to be pretty well heeled, though, as the Fusion will cost €3,999 (around $4,375) and the Fusion CVT will run a hefty €4,999 ($5,467). There's no word yet on when it'll go on sale or if it will come to the US. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Wearable startup Humane AI laid off four percent of its employees before it has started shipping its Ai Pin, The Verge has reported. Leadership reportedly told employees that budgets would be lowered in 2024, according to sources familiar with the matter. The cuts were implemented earlier this week and affect around 10 people. 

On LinkedIn, CEO and co-founder Bethany Bongiorno called the cuts "part of a wider refresh of our organizational structure as our company evolves with purpose for this next phase of growth." She added that CTO Patrick Gates will be transitioning to an advisor role, and that Humane AI had promoted new heads of hardware, software and others as part of a reorganization. Bongiorno told The Verge that the cuts were "not communicated as a layoff," though sources told that outlet that they were, both verbally and in writing.  

Humane was founded by ex-Apple executives Bongiorno and her husband Imran Chaudhri. It's primary product is the "Ai Pin" that acts as a sort of wearable AI assistant. The company first unveiled the device at a Paris fashion show and announced last month that it would start shipping in March for $699. 

Humane

The pin takes voice commands from the user and beams relevant information onto the user’s hand via a built-in projector. It can also perform AI-powered optical recognition via a camera. It's powered by a quad-core Snapdragon processor with a dedicated Qualcomm AI Engine using Cosmos OS software. The founders have said that it "quickly understands what you need, connecting you to the right AI experience or service instantly." 

The Ai Pin has yet to be thoroughly reviewed (other than a few short tests), but the company demonstrated how it works in a video released last month. The founders showed how you can give it specific commands like "play music written by Prince, but not performed by Prince." The device can then display the information on your hand via the projector and control music playback and more by tilting or closing your hand. 

It can also answer questions by searching the web and send messages with modifiers like "add more excitement." You can use it to monitor your health and nutrition, and Humane provides a central hub for images, etc., along with accessories like clips, battery cases and more. How well it performs its AI tasks in the real world, though, remains to be seen.

Amazon-owned Twitch is preparing to lay off 35 percent of its employees or around 500 people, Bloomberg has reported, citing "people familiar with the matter." The move follows a headcount reduction of around 400 people in 2023 and Twitch's decision to cease operations in Korea. The cuts could be announced Wednesday, but no other details were provided, including who may be affected.

The move was reportedly made amid concerns over losses at Twitch, which has failed to become profitable nine years after Amazon acquired it for nearly $1 billion. The costs of running the site are huge, given that it supports around 1.8 billion hours of live video content a month. A similar issue forced Twitch to leave South Korea, though CEO Dan Clancy said costs there are "ten times more expensive" than other countries. 

Near the end of last year, several key executives departed the company, including its chief product officer, chief customer officer, chief revenue officer and chief content officer. Clancy himself has been CEO less than a year, as he replaced co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear in March of 2023. 

In attempts to boost profitability, Twitch has reworked the way it does advertising and pays streamers in recent years. The site had over 50,000 partner creators back in 2022 and many have reportedly praised Clancy for using a more hands-on approach and listening to their concerns.

Parent Amazon has been on a cost-cutting mission, having laid off 27,000 employees over the last two years, including 9,000 in 2023. That's part of a downturn across tech companies, with large-scale layoffs last year at Google, Meta, Spotify, Epic Games, Unity and others. 

Meta is introducing one of its most significant privacy updates yet related to teen user protection, the company announced today. They greatly expand on previous content control measures aiming to lock down teens' privacy settings, following recent lawsuits by US states and others.

The new measures will hide content related to self-harm, graphic violence, eating disorders and other harmful topics from teens on Instagram and Facebook. Related content will now be restricted from users under 16 in their Feeds and Stories, even if it's shared by an account they follow. When teens search for those topics, they'll instead by directed to "expert resources." The company said it consulted with experts in adolescent development to determine what type of content to block. 

In addition, Meta will be automatically placing existing teen users into the most restrictive control settings, expanding on a previous update that placed only new users into that category. Those users will be unable to opt out of those settings, called "Sensitive Content Control" on Instagram and "Reduce" on Facebook.

The social media giant is also introducing notifications with prompts that direct teens to update their privacy to "turn on recommended settings." That will automatically restrict who can repost their content and tag or mention them. It'll also stop non-followers from messaging teen users and hide offensive comments.

It's the latest in a series of privacy updates designed to protect teens using Meta products. In 2022, the company introduced measures to switch users under 16 to the most restrictive content settings and added a new feature to prevent "suspicious" adults from messaging teens on Facebook and Instagram. More recently, it limited ads targeting teens based on gender.  

Today's update more significantly limits what youths can access, though, following a series of recent lawsuits against the platform. Those include a complaint filed by 41 states accusing Meta of harming the mental health of its youngest users, another filed by Seattle schools over a youth "mental health crisis" and a recent ruling that social media companies will be forced to defend teen addiction lawsuits. 

Another recently unsealed complaint filed by 33 states alleges that Meta "coveted and pursued" users under the age of 13 and has been dishonest about how it handles underage users' accounts when they're discovered.